S’more Layer Cake + Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that even though we’re pretty clean eaters, we like to indulge on birthdays. We also take our birthday cakes very seriously. Like this one. And this one. Oh, and this one. Mmm.

Birthday cake planning is talked about year-round, and the girls have cakes planned out until they’re tweens.

Luckily girls are fickle, so I don’t have to make my shopping list until a couple weeks beforehand, which is usually when they change their minds.

My marshmallow-obsessed middle child turned four over the holiday weekend, and for the past month or so she’d been requesting a s’more birthday cake.

Just a couple weeks after she’d made her decision, I got Deb Perelman’s book, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, in the mail.

See that cake up there? It’s Deb’s S’more Layer Cake. I almost died when I saw it. No, really.

Decision made.

This week we also tried those tacos (spaghetti squash and beans!) as well as her vinegar slaw with cucumbers and dill. Those were especially good after the rich, Thanksgiving food we’d been eating all weekend.

Nothing like a bowl of lightly pickled cabbage to set you back on track. I actually loved it, though, and it was a surprisingly good addition to those tacos.

Alright, back to the cake. I packed my kitchen torch and a number four candle and made the cake up at my parents house over the weekend. My little miss was so excited!

We were, too. That cake was TO. DIE. FOR. The cake part tasted just like graham crackers, and that meringue smelled just like roasted marshmallows when it was torched.

*swoon*

The only thing I’d do differently is make more frosting (I didn’t feel like it made enough to make those dollop things in Deb’s photo), and use dark chocolate in the filling instead of milk chocolate.

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is pretty amazing, guys. That was kind of a given, though. Smitten Kitchen was one of the first food blogs I started reading, and Deb always delivers. Always.

A few food bloggy friends also felt that way, too! For more gushing over this book and some rockstar recipes go to…

Oh my gosh, that cake is magnificently beautiful! Your girls have GREAT taste in birthday cake! I’d be interested to know what other cakes they have lined up in the coming years :) I’m glad to see you’ve been trying other recipes in Deb’s book and funny thing, the instant I saw those tacos in her book, I wanted to make them…it’s like we’re kindred food spirits or something ;)

Yes! That was Ivy’s cake two years ago. I think I even took that photo using the same dessert pedestal. :) I made those into cupcakes for a baby shower a couple of weeks ago, only I used the caramel frosting from the Easy Caramel Cake post. LOVED IT! (Glad your grandmother did, too!)

The tacos sound really, really good.
I love dark chocolate but prefer milk chocolate for s’mores. That’s interesting thought for the chocolate choice for the cake. I’m sure it’s great either way!
Is a Perry’s Plate cookbook in the future?

Looks like a wonderful birthday was had!!! Happy Birthday Stephanie.. okay now I would love to enter the contest but did not see any where to leave a post.. the favorite holiday foods for me are actually the creations that come out of the leftovers … wild rice mushroom soup.

i plan to make this cake this weekend for my son’s 5th birthday. i would like to make it (or parts) in advance (like 1-2 days), since i have lots of other food to prepare the day of. any tips on what components can be made in advance? i didn’t find any suggestions in the book and i don’t bake cakes often enough to have good judgment. thx

Yum! You’ll love it. The cake can definitely be made ahead of time. Just wrap the layers in plastic wrap and store in the fridge. I believe the chocolate filling can, too, but let it sit at room temperature for a few hours before assembling the cake. The frosting you’ll need to do the day of. Good luck!

kesar pista replied: — May 22nd, 2013 @ 9:16 am

thanks. i knew i could make the cake in advance and the ganache in advance, but i wasn’t sure about that meringue-like frosting, if i would keep. would you suggest assembling the cake and frosting the day of, or can i assemble in advance and frost the day of? i would like to do as much as i can in advance, but without trial and error, i just don’t know what time would do to the assembled cake. would it be better or worse for flavor and texture?
also, just an fyi for you, i had gone through this cookbook first, spotted the cake, and googled for anyone who has tried it for “cook in advance instructions” and your site came up. i’m also curious about paleo too, so i’ll be poking around your site …

Leave a Comment

Hi, I’m Natalie!

Welcome to Perry's Plate! We love clean food that makes us feel good! Here you'll find our collection of 500+ paleo recipes, gluten-free recipes, and recipes that are just unapologetically good. You can read more about us here. Thanks for stopping by!

Stay Connected

Never miss a recipe

Subscribe to receive email updates!

Looking for Something?

Instagram

My Favorite Way to Shop

All photos and recipes are property of Natalie Perry (Perry's Plate) unless otherwise stated. Please ask permission before using photos or recipes.